Locals chase fast times at Dana Hills Invite

In the week leading up to the Woodbridge Invitational, Newport Harbor boys’ cross-country coach Nowell Kay explained that the reason his team was not making regular appearances at the meet was the driving distance.

The meet has moved out of Orange County to the SilverLakes Sports Park in Norco in recent years, but the allure of being able to hunt a new personal record still brought crowds of distance runners to Woodbridge.

After decorated sophomore and junior seasons that saw Alexis Garcia reach the CIF State Division II championship race as an individual, Kay wavered. He believed that Garcia had earned the right to chase fast times in his senior year.

Garcia got to run Woodbridge last week.

On Saturday, Garcia returned to the Dana Hills Invitational, where he had previously established his personal record as a junior.

For the third straight year, Garcia placed in the top 10 of the boys’ invitational race at Dana Hills High. He finished fourth with a time of 14 minutes 41.7 seconds.

The time fell short of Garcia’s career-best 14:27.8 at the meet last year, but the Sailors’ ace revealed that he had been battling the flu this week. He came onto the track for the final 600 meters of the race alone in third place, but he surrendered one position on the final lap.

“Today, I was looking for a [personal record], but I couldn’t make it because I’m just getting out of a sickness,” Garcia said. “It was a little hard for me, but it was OK.”

After running two of the fastest courses available to local cross-country runners, Garcia indicated that he found the flat Woodbridge course to be less forgiving.

“On hilly courses, it’s different because sometimes you get tired going up the hills,” Garcia said. “Then you recover on the downhills.

“On a flat course, you have it or you don’t have it.”

Huntington Beach’s Lars Mitchel also pulled off the double as an individual qualifier for the Woodbridge and Dana Hills invitational meets. Although Mitchel set his new lifetime best of 14:56.4 at Woodbridge last week, he seemed to find the course on the campus of Dana Hills High more to his liking.

Mitchel ran 15:09.3, placing 24th.

“This one’s a lot more spaced out,” Mitchel said. “The start’s a little tight, but Woodbridge was just like a swarm of bees moving together.

“I really like this one because Woodbridge felt like laps, but this one felt like more of a course. It was not as square, and you kind of run around the school a little bit more. I love finishing on the track.”

The Fountain Valley girls began the season ranked second in the CIF Southern Section Division 2 poll. With that being said, the Barons have yet to run all-out as a group, with the coaching staff placing a premium on keeping runners fresh for the CIF postseason.

Maddie Jahshan, who projects to be part of the final three in the Barons’ starting seven, was one of two representatives for Fountain Valley in the girls’ sweepstakes.

She said that times run at Dana Hills can give a runner a false sense of security in terms of how fast they are running because a good portion of the course is downhill.

While Jahshan (18:09.9) wanted to break 18 minutes, Barons co-coach Brian Bivens came away encouraged to see her run within eight seconds of Olivia Velasco (18:01.0), the top returner on Surf League rival Los Alamitos.

Bivens said the game plan for Jahshan was to start out slow on the first mile and produce a negative split.

“I’ve been working on pacing, but I think I went out a little too fast, like 5:50,” Jahshan said. “I think what I’ve learned is that I need to bring it back a little bit.”

Newport Harbor’s Mia Matsunami led all local girls with a time of 17:52.5. She placed 11th.

Isabel Glassen, a sophomore for the Sailors, was the runner-up (18:35.9) in her Division 2 grade-level race.

Ocean View performed well in the Division 3 grade-level races. Freshman Adrian Ramirez won his race in 16:33.2, and sophomore Parker Walpole took second in his race in 16:41.0.

On the girls’ side, Adriana Gil (19:07.6) was the top senior in the combined junior/senior race.

andrew.turner@latimes.com

Twitter: @ProfessorTurner